Textile museum would preserve Whitinsville's industrial history

Monday

Nov 4, 2013 at 11:20 PM

By Susan Spencer, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

NORTHBRIDGE — Harry T. Whitin is a seventh-generation descendant of textile industrialist Paul Whitin and his wife, Betsey Fletcher Whitin, but until recently, even he didn't have a sense of what the Whitins meant to Northbridge and to their namesake village of Whitinsville.

Since he began digging deeply into his family's history, he's uncovered a story he hopes will be preserved.

Mr. Whitin spoke to about 50 people Monday at a Northbridge Historical Society meeting, held at the Whitinsville Social Library, about an idea he's developed with Alternatives Unlimited Inc.'s Executive Director Dennis H. Rice for a Whitinsville industrial history museum.

The museum would be located in the 18th-century forge and lower level of the 1826 brick Whitin Mill that Alternatives restored over the past decade into an administrative, arts and housing complex.

Mr. Whitin said the museum would have relatively few "dust-gathering exhibits," featuring interactive maps and connections to walking tours, the library's history collection and related points of interest accessed through smartphones or other technology.

"The story of Whitinsville is so much more than the story of the Whitin family," Mr. Whitin said. "I think the possibility of being able to tell that in a way that is crisp, clear and understandable is really an exciting thing."

The idea for a museum was sparked more than a year ago as Mr. Whitin organized a family reunion that brought together 67 Whitin descendants from 13 states.

He realized there were misconceptions about local history that needed to be straightened out. For instance, the area's industrial focal point wasn't all about Whitin Machine Works, but also the six other — eventually competing — mills owned by various Whitin family members. Ultimately, Whitin manufacturing interests encompassed mills in towns including Douglas, Uxbridge, Grafton, Hardwick and Putnam.

Also, if plans proceed at the federal level for a Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, Mr. Whitin said, "The town of Northbridge needs to have something to bring people here other than a village on a map. It needs to be part of the destination for Whitinsville."

Mr. Whitin said he's talked to representatives of the American Textile History Museum in Lowell about bringing back a Whitin machine to run in the museum. And he's talked with people at the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, R.I., and in Hopedale, two other industrial heritage sites in the proposed national park, about collaborating.

"We've got the notion that there could be kind of a textile trail," he said, "to tell the story of the (American) Industrial Revolution in chapter format."

Mr. Whitin said he would like to have opportunities for area residents to bring in artifacts they might have that would help tell the story of early Northbridge.

He said, "The thought was, we would gather together a lot of the threads that run through this town and pull them together into the museum, and out the other side as well."

Museum organizers would have to raise about $300,000 to get it going, Mr. Whitin said. With the federal budget paralysis, the likelihood of National Park Service funding for even a portion of the project remains up in the air.

But Mr. Rice said the Massachusetts Cultural Council awarded Alternatives a facilities grant that allowed basic structural work to be done, which amounted to first steps forward.

"This community has such a rich history and so much to tell … we need to make sure that the generations below us understand," Mr. Whitin said. "It's important that we leave footprints of who we are and where we've been."

Contact Susan Spencer at susan.spencer@telegram.com Follow her on Twitter @SusanSpencerTG